The Mets Police

So let's retire #17 once and for all.   You can visit Mets By The Numbers for a list of all the castoffs, jokes and wanna-be's that have been issued this number - they are pretty darn casual handing it out when they protect #24 with a sword.    Keith was the Captain (the Gary co-captain nonsense was weak), he's revered by the fans, The Former Franchise wants no part of us, and Keith on SNY has seemed enjoying being "The Great Keith Hernandez."



So it's good for him, good for us, good for the franchise.   When there are 17 games left at Shea, tell Fernando Tatis his new number is 24, and hand a 17 on the fence.   Wouldn't mind a statue of a certain pitcher that doesn't love us, and another of Keith Hernandez outside Citi Field.



If they retire The Great Dodger's #31 before they retire Hernandez you will see many a cranky post.   Keith means way more to this franchise than the catcher from the Dodgers did, and there's already way too much Dodgers action over at N'Ebbets Field as it is.



Welcome to the Jonathan Niese bandwagon.  It starts here and it starts now.  I will be accepting members until the end of the year.   If you wait until the spring then you are just trendy.    If you don't know who Niese is, no need to apply.



John Maine needs to learn to get out of the fourth inning or I will have to give him the nickname of Four Inning.    I wonder if Maine is nice to 70 year old Irish ladies (inside blog joke, scroll down 20 posts).



I like this kid Reyes.   No not the overrated one at SS that everyone put in the Hall of Fame in 2006 - the Argenis one.  Scrappy.  Came from nowhere without annoying hype.  Doesn't pull out his shirt three seconds after the final out. 



Surprisingly, for a crank like me, I don't hate this sign.  But here's the deal Mets:



This stadium is called Citi Field.



That's it. 



Don't in four years tell me Citibank was sold and now you want me to call it Estadio Del Banco Popular or The WaMuDome.



The name of the stadium is Citi Field and shall be, until you move to Mercury in 2021 as previously announced.   Hopefully by that time I will be a billionaire, and will buy the San Francisco Giants and move them to New York and take back the logo and rename the Mel Ott Rotunda.



You think it's crazy to suggest they will rename it?  Here's some lines from The Times:

In the past three quarters, it (Citigroup) has lost $17 billion — including a $2.5 billion loss reported on Friday — caused by $38 billion in credit losses and write-downs for bad mortgage investments. Since early 2007, the company has cut about 28,000 jobs.

I also really appreciate this dig from the same article.

Losses or not, there is no stopping the Citi Field deal, even if some of its laid-off employees may not be able to afford to take their families to a game, or even if some of them could have been retained with the $20 million a year being spent on baseball.

If The Rays win, you get a donut.



Nice to see Joe Torre get the Formerly Brooklyn Dodgers into first place on Friday night to celebrate Joe's birthday.





At 7pm tonight I will post another Open Letter To The Giants about the horrible crime against humanity called a Personal Seat License.   Why again do you need a new stadium? 



Mets-Reds reminds me of the Orosco/McDowell game.   There was something in the air that night, I think everyone saw that game.  It probably has something to do with the Mets putting half their games on cable TV, excpet Queens wasn't even wired for cable (oh for a time machine and Mets Police 1980s) - so that was a Channel 9 game, which was an increasingly rare bird, so we probably all watched.   Anyway - you know the game, a big fight, ejections, Carter at third, and Jesse and Roger taking turns on the mound.  Great great stuff.   Would be one for a DVD if someone has the tape.



The Mets might keep "Nice To Old Ladies But Pitches Four Innings Pedro" skip the Phillies series.  I think that's great because it means the Mets don't have to go to the bullpen in the fifth, plus Pedro can hang around and be nice to seventy year old ladies (I told you, scroll down 20 posts).   Oh wait, Pedro being Pedro means if he ain't pitching he doesn't have to come to Shea.   When Roger Clemens did it in Houston he was selfish, but Pedro is just being Pedro.



I could see Manny Ramirez in left next year.  It seems like the kind of thing Omar does - signs a 37 year old outfielder.   The guy is a Hall of Famer for sure, but much like Four Inning Pedro, he's a Red Sock.  I'd rather lose without him than win with a guy closely identified with another team, and an absolute integral part of their franchise history.



Is Terry Francona like Torre up there in Boston?  He's gotta be, right?  I mean there isn't some 120 year old guy sitting around who also won two rings with Boston is there?



It's hard to take MLS seriously if they are going to play on whatever that was for field in Giants Stadium last night.  What was that, Astroturf?   Why are there football lines and an NFL logo in July.   The former Metrostars can't get a stadium soon enough.





Embrace the AVP.  They are in Brooklyn this weekend.   Misty May and Kerri Walsh came into the weekend having won 90 straight matches (that's them celebrating on the left) and in three weeks you're going to be watching them on NBC every other night during the Olympics.



The men's game is somehow less enjoyable.   Aside from the pretty sights and sounds of the women's game, the men's game just lacks something.  AVP on NBC check it out.